The SDLP has welcomed Sinn Fein's entry to the Stormont talks and appealed for the Ulster Unionist Party to remain at the negotiating table. "There is absolutely no justification for any party to remain outside at this stage," said Mr Sean Farren, a member of the SDLP's negotiating team.
In a statement he said: "By the very rules of the negotiations the basic rights of both communities will be fully respected. A successful conclusion will only be achieved if both communities agree. As a result, nothing can be imposed.
"Unionists who will not be present will betray their own community and will allow their case to go unheard. Such a position suggests that unionists are unwilling to negotiate the necessary and honourable compromises essential if a settlement is to be achieved."
The Sinn Fein leader, Mr Gerry Adams, has described the issue of majority consent to political development within Northern Ireland as a "bogus deceit" that has been used to repress nationalism.
Writing in yesterday's Irish News, Mr Adams said: "Consent as applied by the British government and the unionists is a coercive measure. It is a veto which forces nationalists in the North to live in a partitioned country.
"This perversion of consent means that it applies only to unionists and becomes a political instrument for bludgeoning nationalists into accepting a unionist outcome to negotiations."
He said consent was a "bogus deceit" and a "tool of British policy for maintaining the union".
His remarks were criticised by the Ulster Unionist Party negotiator, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, who said that Mr Adams had better get the message. "Unionists are not going to allow any tampering with the principle of consent. He is going to have to accept a few realities here. The reality is that Northern Ireland exists and the constitutional status as part of the United Kingdom will not change without the consent of the greater number of the people in Northern Ireland."